In the previous post, we learned about the fundamental cycle of creation that we use to create and manifest everything in life. But that’s just the beginning! The cycle of creation has eight basic building blocks or “trigrams” that combine to create “hexagrams” that describe different categories of experience for our souls to explore here and elsewhere. How do hexagrams fit into the cycle of creation?

What is the Book of Changes?

The I Ching system (“Book of Changes”) is thousands of years old. Many sages have studied its mysteries over time. I learned a simplified version of it through Michael Teachings, but really didn’t grasp its higher functions until I read Richard Rudd’s “Gene Keys.” He explained:

• There are 64 hexagrams or “gates” in the I Ching system. Each gate has a spectrum of consciousness ranging from the lowest to the highest levels of awareness and awakening.
• The spectrum can be divided into three frequency bands called the shadow (victim states), gift (authentic self) and siddhi (enlightened) levels, as summarized in the Table (below).

These gates or hexagrams describe different states of beingness or categories of experience. No hexagram is better than another. Some are meant to teach us about the right use of Love, while others teach us about Wisdom or Power. We’re learning to balance all three forces.

Where do the states of being come from?

Each hexagram is made of two trigrams, one stacked on top of the other. It’s the tension between the upper and lower trigrams that creates the dynamic of a state of consciousness. All hexagrams are made from various combinations of just eight basic trigrams (below).

• The lower trigram represents the root, cause, beginning, present motivation, inner character or foundational context in the inner world. The upper trigram is the effect, ending, future intention, external behavior or direction of change in the outer world.
• One way to show these dynamics is to put the trigrams as the corners of a 3D cube (below, left). Alternatively, the trigrams can be put in a circle along four different axes (right).
  

Images modified from Stephen Phillips (cubes with arrows) and Anagarika Govinda (circle).

In both diagrams, the trigrams are paired as polar opposites: Creative-Receptive, Fire-Water, Wind-Thunder and Lake-Mountain. Then we can draw lines between all of them to show the dynamics. The lines can go in one direction (red arrows) or the other (blue arrows) to create different hexagrams or opposite states of beingness. For example:

• When we go from Wind to Thunder, it creates Gate 32 (Endurance, Continuity), where Wind is the bottom trigram and Thunder is the upper trigram. When we switch their positions to go from Thunder to Wind, it creates Gate 42 (Growth, Finishing Things), its polar opposite.
• Gate 32 wants to keep things the same, while Gate 42 wants to complete things and move on. Both gates may be part of your soul blueprint to learn to balance them — one as your Life’s Work, the other as your challenge to learn what works (or not) in a given situation.

How do hexagrams fit into the cycle of creation?

The eight trigrams can also be arranged in a specific sequence around a figure 8-like infinity loop that I call the “cycle of creation,” which retains the same four axes (below, left).

• When we use the same trigram doubled up as the lower and upper trigrams to make a hexagram, we get eight “root gates” that are special. They are located in key positions in the cycle as polar opposite hexagram pairs at 1-2, 57-51, 29-30 and 52-58 (right).

To illustrate the dynamics, we can use one trigram (e.g. Wind, below) as the lower trigram or starting point and draw the lines to all the other trigrams (as upper trigrams) and determine which gates are created by their combination (right). This is a brand new way to illustrate the function or nature of the hexagrams by their location within the cycle of creation.

To illustrate how the cycle works, let’s take a look at the “Family of Gate 57” (above, right). You will see that each gate or “family member” has its own fear patterns, vices and virtues.

• Gate 57 (Intuitive Insight) is about getting inspired, but can also be hesitant (fear of the future) or rash. The next step is about choice, where Gate 48 (Wisdom) is plagued by fear of inadequacy that must be overcome to commit to an intention.
• Then comes Gate 18 (Perfection), which may improve things or be judgmental, not in the flow to pulse out the frequency it wants. Then to Gate 44 (Meeting Together), which may be distrustful or misjudge others, instead of working as a team to create something.
• Next comes the experience at Gate 28 (The Game Player of Life), the gambler that believes life has no purpose or who is afraid of death, yet prone to self-destruction. Then to Gate 50 (Values/Stability), which is also the gate of guilt, corruption and fear of responsibility.
• Then to Gate 32 (Endurance) where fear of failure sets in. But it’s time to take action, to re-evaluate one’s needs and move onto Gate 46 (Self-Determination) to follow through, maybe even find humor in the experience, while reflecting on the lessons learned. This is starting to sound like a plot from a movie set in Las Vegas, right!? 😉

These gates are not just categories of experience, but part of our genetic code (DNA/RNA). The Family of 57 codes for three amino acids: Alanine (Gates 57, 48, 18, 46), Aspartate (28, 32) and Glutamate (44, 50), which are some of the building blocks for proteins in the body.

Final Thoughts

I hope you can appreciate the relationships between various hexagrams in a new way, as revealed by the Families of Root Hexagrams and their position in the cycle of creation (below). I find it much easier to see the function, nature or role of the hexagrams in the cycle than in the geometric cubes or circles with lines going every which way, not knowing who is who!?

Similar “family stories” can be weaved for every gate in the cycle, which are illustrated in the large “family picture” below. Our soul blueprint tells us which parts of the cycle we’re focusing on in this lifetime. We tend not to put all our eggs in one basket, but spread them around the cycle, while emphasizing one to three steps more than others to learn more about them.

For example, some people may be working on being inspired or committed to an experience, while others are learning about releasing desires and karmic attachments. We can also gain more insight about some of the personality or enneatype associations with particular gates. You can see that there is much more to every gate than meets the eye in terms of their genetic code, structure, function, behaviors, vices and virtues.

“Though Man is placed, according to the Book of Transformations between Heaven and Earth, between the Invisible and the Visible, and takes part in both, the various human beings differ in the degree and manner in which they partake in the one or the other.”    — Lama Anagarika Govinda (“The Inner Structure of the I’Ching”)

Families of Root Hexagrams arranged by their position in the Cycle of Creation

Note: The red number (root hexagram) is the starting point (lower trigram), while the black numbers inside the box are the end points (upper trigrams). The number indicates the gate created by a particular combination of trigrams. The larger loop in the center shows all eight root gates in their fixed location in the stepwise cycle of creation.

For more information, please see:

Lama Anagarika Govinda: The Inner Structure of the I’Ching, 1981

Stephen Phillips: The Mathematical Connection Between Religion and Science, 2009

Richard Rudd: Gene Keys, 2009

Chetan Parkyn: The Book of Lines, 2012 & The Book of Destinies, 2016

Mondo Secter: The I Ching Handbook, 2002

Karen Curry: Understanding Human Design, 2013

Ra Uru Hu: The Complete Rave I’Ching, 2001

Lynda Bunnell & Ra Uru Hu: The Definitive Book of Human Design, 2011

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